No better picture of helplessness and oppression than this
can be drawn in words. He says, oh Ghalib, why do you complain of the Advisor's
harsh language and pitilessness, and why do you quarrel with him? Hold your
peace, be patient. In contrast to him, we too have power over the collar.
When we become very much hopeless and oppressed, then in that state of sorrow
and grief we tear our collar. The Advisor's tongue moves, he reads us a lecture.
Our hands move, we, oppressed, tear our collar. He's composed a peerless closing-verse.
(108-09)

Oh Ghalib, why do we tangle with the Advisor? If he scolded
us, and treated us harshly, then there's no cause for complaint. After all,
we too get angry at our collar. Anger always carries people away. The Advisor
has done nothing new. Such things happen in the world. (140)

The commentators agree on one obvious meaning: don't mind
if the Advisor scolds and abuses you, or generally treats you harshly, Ghalib,
because you can always take it out on your collar-- you can always tear open
your collar, in the classic style of mad lovers in the ghazal world. That
will remind you that even you, or you too [bhii], have
the power to use force and harshness on something. (Or, as Bekhud Mohani suggests,
since you are rough with your collar, you have no right to complain of the
Advisor is rough with you.)

But even more wittily, what if the Advisor's use of force
or violence [shiddat] consisted in grabbing the perverse
madman by the collar and holding him when he sought to leave-- or even holding
him by the collar and shaking him, to compel his attention? The scene is easy
to imagine, and the lover's later self-consolation then becomes even more
ruefully humorous: 'After all, he's not the only one with the power to grab
my collar-- I too can grab my collar and treat it roughly if I want!' This
thought also gives a richer meaning to 'don't fight with the Advisor'-- in
addition to meaning 'don't fight with him, be calm', it can mean 'don't fight
with him, fight with the collar instead'.

Of course we're then left to wonder how much of a consolation
it is, when you've been beaten up, if you reflect that you can also beat yourself
up. If you're a mad lover, though, it may be all the consolation you need.
Or at least, all the consolation you're destined to get.